


Burning Thunder

by Caraidean



Category: Fire Emblem Series
Genre: F/F, F/M, Fake Multimedia Crossover, M/M, Nanowrimo 2020 Attempt, all new heights of rarepair nonsense, fe13 and 4 parents are probably still dead, poor to no editing, sorry guys i like your kids more ig, superhero au, wizards and superheroes both exist and are Known About
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-01
Updated: 2020-11-14
Packaged: 2021-03-08 17:14:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 9
Words: 20,108
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27320302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caraidean/pseuds/Caraidean
Summary: Superheroes and wizards alike are starting to drop off one by one, a malicious force from the dawn of time hunting them down and claiming their power for his own. As the world watches its heroes fall one after another, a new hero finds herself as the only one who stands a real chance of stopping him.Unfortunately, she's a bit preoccupied being a fangirl.Art by @hardkourparcore on twitter
Relationships: Celice | Seliph/Ishtar (Fire Emblem), Edelgard von Hresvelg/Marianne von Edmund/Constance von Nuvelle, Petra Macneary/Cynthia (Fire Emblem), Yuris Leclair | Yuri Leclerc/Claude von Riegan
Kudos: 1





	1. Chapter One -- Lightningrod #0

**Author's Note:**

> A note on how this story is structured -- I am, basically, doing a great big universe-resetting crisis crossover storyline for a fictional comic line that Doesn't Exist. The chapters are named after the 'Issue' that they relate to, with the idea being you're reading the trade paperback collection of all the issues put in order at the end of the event for people who weren't following the individual releases. The setting is already meant to have been around for a while, so there'll be occasional references to past events (normally in the form of characters from Awakening & Genealogy's first generations, with a smattering of other games and the Marth/Valentia era as the Distant Past), but it's not going to get delved into in great length.
> 
> Each of these issues are also going to have wildly different tones/styles of presentation to match the characters they present as their leads, so be prepared for the only real connective tissue being the storyline. Sorry.

When most spoiled upper class trust fund kids take a gap year off school to go help around a community or 'find themselves', they probably just lounge around and do nothing. I mean, I think - maybe a lot of them do actually do good work. But it's not like I'd know. 

I've spent my gap year getting my ass handed to me for trying to help, and now I'm topping it off falling through a portal to another dimension chasing an immortal douchebag that thinks he's a dragon who just stole the superpowers of a bunch of my friends. Also, I'm pretty sure the fact I'm doing something this stupid means that my girlfriend is either going to dump me when I get back, or I'm going to get absolutely showered in praise by her. 

It's hard to tell. 

"You're not as good with these as Lucina was!" I shout at the retreating figure. I'm almost blown back out the other side of the dimensional tunnel by the blast of air he sent back at me, but I've had more practice with these things than he has at this point - and I keep powering myself through the rift after him. It's hard to describe what it looks like, you know? I'm pretty sure if I focused on any of the flashing, flaring lights surrounding myself and King Douchebag down there I'd go insane. Lucy always said that it took her time to adjust to using them. Guess she'd know, opening them is her entire thing. 

Or was. 

"Get back here." I growl as I pull myself forwards. It's not really a physical thing - neither of our bodies were moving at all, in the practical sense. We'd emerge out the other side of the portal as if we were mid-step from when we entered it, but to actually get through you had to sort of mentally drag yourself along. Sort of like swimming, but just in your head. Which means I should really stop getting distracted.

When King Douchebag's spiritual form vanished from view, I knew the exit was coming. With a gasp I break through the other side, stumbling slightly as feet that had felt like were flying instead came down on soft mud, and I catch myself with my staff while looking around. 

Where is he...

"How is it always your damned family that interferes?!"

Oh, there he is. I don't bother with a snappy comeback at the start, spinning around my staff and bending back at the waist - a blast of super-pressurised air roaring through where my chest was a few seconds ago. Huh, that would have just gone straight through me. I flip up again, yanking my staff out of the ground and spinning to the right as I dodged another air-bullet before resting it along my arm and under one shoulder like it was a rifle. 

The bolt of lightning caught King Douchebag straight in the chest and sent him sprawling. Smirking, I lowered it a little and let my power surge through me some more, arcs crackling off of my ruined jacket and coursing along my arms.

"Well, hey. You know. Maybe it's just a tradition? Who started it, Great-great-great-grandpappy Marth, right?"

"You aren't even right." Medeus growled as he rose to his feet. Oh, looks like I've made him angry. "I am going to enjoy peeling your skin from your bones, you little witch!"

"Aww. Did I make the old man mad?" I lean forwards a little, spreading my legs and taking a deep breath. I remember how Brady said I could 'kill' him, at least, but I was only going to get one real shot at this. "So...wanna try for it? Come on, I'll give you a free hit, make up for knocking you on your ass."

* * *

One Year Earlier

* * *

My parents were superheroes, but I don't mean that literally. Well, okay, I do for dad, but my mother worked as a nurse. As far as I'm aware, Sumia never had any powers, not like my dad did. She was just the sap who had to keep putting him back together again whenever he'd get hurt after a fight, and I guess that bloomed. 

I never did understand why they kept talking about pies and laughing during that story. But it was nice, you know? I grew up rich and spoiled with parents who saved people's lives, not for a living, really - our money is old, old, OLD money from way back before this place was even Ylisse - but because they could. It was inspiring, I guess. I remember how proud my parents were when Lucina started helping them out with that stuff too - when she got her powers and started using them. 

My sister, the superhero. Right. Because my inferiority complex wasn't bad enough to start with before that happened. I was just the nerd who liked them way too much, and here was my sister suddenly walking around with the ability to open up portals between different places in space on top of all of it. But I didn't have anything, or at least I was pretty sure I didn't. If I did always have it, maybe I could have helped. 

We're still not sure who or what killed my parents, not really. Lucina spent almost a year searching with her superhero group The Mighty - ugh, I know, right? Like who names these things, seriously, you could at least have worked the word Justice in there somewhere - but we got nothing. Hell, even Aversa didn't have anything to do with it, and she was like Dad's worst enemy. But I guess none of us can really remember a time that Aversa killed anyone...ugh, I'm getting off track. The only thing any of us know is that it wasn't another person with superpowers that killed them, or if it was they were smart enough not to use them.

Look, there's a few simple rules, okay? About how powers work and stuff, because they're real and they've, like, always been real. But this is how I know it works because the wizards said so. Man, I love that my life is cool enough where I get to just say that and it's true. Okay. So, some people are just born with superpowers, but here's the thing -- only one person can have a specific superpower at a time. So, like, Lucina is the only person who can open those dimension doors of hers, and at the time my dad would have been the only person who could physically weaken or harden something by touching it. There's this whole creation myth involved, but even the wizards aren't sure how true it is. Not even Robin, and she was my dad's best friend and also like Head Wizard. The big wizard. I keep asking her if she has a title for it or anything and the answer just keeps being no. 

But like I said, only one person can have a superpower at a time. And we all know for a fact that the person with psychokinesis wasn't even in the country when that penthouse was burned down, because the dear benevolent Emperor of Adrestia was attempting to put her hand through my sister's head at the time. Isn't it the worst when nobility gets goddamn superpowers on top of everything else?

...Lucina and I are such massive hypocrites, aren't we.

Anyway, back to my point. So we know it couldn't have been Edelgard, as much as we all collectively wished it was. Robin insists it wasn't magic, so hey, maybe it was just some lucky mook with a flamethrower. That was about a year back, and it hadn't gotten any clearer since. Just another mysterious dead superhero in a circumstance that shouldn't be possible. Totally not suspicious at all. I don't have a billboard covered in newspaper scraps and pins with colored string in my spare room or anything. 

Yes, it is exactly as useless as you'd expect it to be, but having something like that on the wall does make it easier for me to think. 

I was nineteen when I finally got my powers, about two months back. It's weird, you normally get them way younger - Lucina was fifteen at the time, and that was considered late. It's also worth noting, I guess, that I didn't actually remember anyone who's used these powers in public since...oh, man, latest I could remember or even find when I looked it up was the nineteen thirties. Sure, people would have had it, but I guess they just kept it secret.

Can't blame them. But also, this is one of the coolest damned things that's ever happened to me. You know how I found out that I had it? Because my phone was flat and I wished I could charge it in my hand. Then it was suddenly crackling with so much lightning that it caught on fire and I had to throw it out a window, but the lightning didn't stop. 

Okay so that was a pretty terrifying half an hour until I figured out how to get it under control I guess. But I got there eventually, and you know what I can do? So goddamn much. So, so, so, so goddamn much. It's not just throwing lightning bolts, although honestly I would have taken that. A few days of experimenting with Lucina showed me all the other stuff I could do. Let's just run it down in bullet points, it's faster that way. 

  * Throw lightning. Awesome.
  * Absorb and redirect electrical currents. Sweet. I do have to make sure I don't accidentally cause blackouts now which is, uh, a whole new situation.
  * Flight...well, okay, no. Basically I'm like throwing an electrical current into the air and getting dragged along with it. I'm moving really fast in a straight line and it can be vertical or horizontal or anything, but moving mid-flight is basically impossible. I really need to replace that billboard. 
  * Faster reflexes. We actually went and talked to our friend Brady about that one, you know. A bunch of what he said went straight over my head (give me a break, I'm going to be an English major when I actually get around to filing my university application, he's a medic he knows this stuff) and apparently I'm like supercharging my nervous system? It's all electrical signals in a way, he said. I'm not moving any faster than I can but my reaction time is increased a whole bunch which is still super super useful. 



So those are all pretty sweet. I'm just hoping it's going to be sweet enough, because my sister had one last test before she'd 'let' me go out and fight crime like she did. I mean, come on, it's just what I've always wanted to do with my life...ugh, sisters, right? What spoilsports. I'm just a little obsessed with it all. Okay, a lot, like a lot a lot. But my powers are way cooler than hers. 

"Are you ready yet or would you like to fidget some more?" Lucina said impatiently. I chuckled and caught myself, shaking my head and settling back on my feet. Father had given us both self defense lessons even before Lucina's powers manifested, so I had a pretty decent grounding already. 

"No, no, I'm good. Focused here, completely focused."

"Good. Just land one good hit on me, and don't let me land a major hit on you." Lucina instructed, pushing her butterfly mask back on. I paused and glanced at her, my eyes flicking to the sword on her waist hesitantly. She still hadn't explained where the hell she had found a goddamned magic sword. At least it didn't look like she was using it. 

"Oh, I'll land a good hit on you alright. It'll be the best hit you ever-" Suddenly, I was way more glad for the faster reflexes part than anything else I could do. The smell of ozone was enough to make me snap my head to the side, my sister's fist passing through where it was a moment ago - the miniature dimensional portal she'd opened shimmering shut as soon as she pulled her fist back. "...cheap shot."

"I'm sorry. Were you expecting people to just let you talk?" Lucina snapped at me, and then everything got a lot worse for me really quickly. She didn't try the portal-punch cheap shot again at least, but the damn things basically let her teleport - appearing behind me and almost kicking me in the kidneys before I rolled away. She was on me like a damn tick, refusing to let me make any kind of ground at all as she threw kicks, punches, elbows-

"Alright, FINE!" I almost shouted. Lightning crackles across the entire rooftop we were sparring on, and she was forced to pull back with a wary look on her face. None of it had hit her, but it wasn't really meant to - I just needed to give myself space. "You want a good hit? Here!"

It wasn't the best lightning bolt I've ever thrown, but I was pretty peeved off at her. She just stared at me flatly, completely unimpressed as a wave of her hand opened a portal that sucked in the bolt, sending it dissipating...somewhere. She'd tried to explain it once, that there was some kinda infinite space between portals that she could send things, but it went over my head. "Seriously, Cynthia. Did you think I'd just let you hit me with a single bolt of lightning that was coming from straight in front of me?"

"Uh, no?" I pulled both my arms closer to my body again, and suddenly the lightning I had sent coursing around the rooftop was all flaring in towards my sister. She might have had her butterfly mask on but I could /feel/ her sudden reaction of, hopefully, 'oh shit' as she had to pull open a dimensional door to escape - manifesting ten feet in the air, turning around and plummeting down towards the roof of an adjacent building instead. 

Like I said, I can't really turn while using my flight equivalent. But I moved real fast, and that was a straight line. Tucking my legs under me I bolted forwards, one arm cast out in front to blast the lightning and grip onto it as it flew, darting straight for my sister. Really, I shouldn't have been so surprised when I felt her fist connect with my chin. Experience is a hell of an advantage, and I was sent skidding over the ...gravel?

Wait. What? Blinking I stood up and looked around - this wasn't the rooftops of Ylisstol anymore. I could see pillars, and a massive lake, and what looked like an enormous and ancient cathedral over there...

"Does that count as a good hit?" Lucina sounded so goddamn smug right now. Pouting, I turned to her, rubbing my sore jaw and wincing. 

"Did you punch me into **_Sienne_**?"

"I punched you into a _portal_ that led to Sienne." Lucina corrected. 

"Some difference." I griped, and Lucina let herself smirked for a brief second. I sighed loudly, lowering my arms and shaking my head. "Alright, fine. I guess it's back to training for another month, huh? Again."

"I didn't say that. You didn't hit me, but you came close - and really, now. How cruel do you think I am?" My sister threw something at me, and I managed to catch it before my face split into a massive grin. "Let's go home, get changed, and you can go on a patrol. How does that sound."

"...pretty great." I grinned, eyes watering. "Hey, Lucy? Am I a superhero now?"

"Not quite...but you will be. And I think you'll do just fine." My sister opened another door and we walked back inside our penthouse, stopping next to the picture of Mom and Dad again for a brief second. We both looked at it like we always did before moving past, my sister heading for her phone - the damn thing was always beeping - while I went to get changed. 

Classic. My sister at least knew my tastes in this kind of thing, I'll give her that - tights, proper tights. They were even spandex, or at least spandex-y. White, too, which was nice. The jacket was a bit less traditional, but I supposed I couldn't outright blame her for picking something like this - I could feel the armor plating clinking beneath my fingers as I put it on, even if it weighed almost nothing. That was more of a light violet, and the mask...oh, she'd gone really old school with this. She must have known I'd want that. 

"Domino masks are so pointless." My sister said, completely unimpressed as I came out. I pouted, making sure it was in place before shrugging and putting my hands on my hips. 

"I like them. It's traditional."

"Uhuh." Lucina rolled her eyes, pocketing her phone with a frown. "Listen, I have to go. The Mighty need my help, can you-"

"Lucy, please. I grew up in this town, I'll be fine. I'll stay out of anything big, okay, I promise." I step over and hug her quickly, and then she's gone in an instant. Sighing, I look out the windows and take a step, glancing down at the street. Now, if I was going to commit a crime at four fifty in the afternoon on a Thursday, where would I be...?

* * *

Everywhere, apparently, oh my god. Oh my **god**. My sister never bothered talking about what she did in patrols, but oh my _god_ now I see why - it was more tedious than anything. Even flight was getting boring after the third carjacking I broke up - bouncing from parking lot to parking lot to garage. 

Carjackings...geeze. Nothing big and fancy. Actually, how are people stupid enough to keep doing things like that? Maybe they reckon that with all the actual supervillains running around they won't get noticed if they slip under with something small. Not the dumbest idea ever, actually, I take it back. Maybe they're not all morons. Still, I was starting to see how Lucy could be so cranky and tired all the time, now. She had to deal with the Really Big Problems on top of still going on patrol in and around Ylisstol from time to time -- hey, now that I'm going to be cutting in on that action, she can actually get more than four hours of sleep a night. Wonder if she'd accept that as a birthday present...eh, probably not. 

Still, I was way more thirsty than anything else. It was a good thing that my sister actively thought about my costume - turns out the jacket was reversible, so I just took it off, switched it around, and suddenly I looked like, well...okay, not many people have blue hair. I don't expect this secret identity to hold up to more than about five minutes of someone bored deciding to google me, especially considering that Lucina's is already out there, but it's the principle of the thing if nothing else. 

Mask off, jacket reversed, coffee shop in...ridiculously overpriced and probably way too extravagant to actually meet the technical definition of the word 'coffee' out. There was probably a decent chance that I'd have been recognized if I had existed for more than a day, but that was sort of the risk of doing this at all. I had my mask back on and my jacket reversed within moments of leaving, the work of all of like five seconds in an alleyway because I couldn't find a phone booth because apparently I'm the only person with any respect for the classics these days and they've been removed for serving 'no purpose'. Where am I supposed to get changed now, behind a dumpster? What, every day and not just right now? Ew.

I fly up to a rooftop without spilling my coffee, sit on the ledge, and look over the city. Ylisstol is a confusing place, really - a mix of old architecture and brand spanking new in various places. Generally, the old architecture was wherever my parents or grandparents hadn't gotten in a fight with some supervillain before now. If you're going to rebuild, there isn't much of a point in making it look the exact same if technology had marched on. Unless you're Sienne at which point looking like an old cathedral had accidentally turned into an entire city was sort of the point, I guess. Whatever, considering how many heavy hitters lived in and around the Begnion Empire you'd have to be an absolute idiot or an alien to start a fight over there. 

"Day One: Not actually that glamorous." I mutter as I glance at my phone. It was almost flat, but you know what the really cool if really mundane thing about my powers was? Well, now that I had them under control enough to not burn out and explode whatever I'm trying to do this with?

I hold my phone off to the side just in case, take a sip of my coffee, and start jolting lightning straight into the battery. Well, I might have shut it down by accident, but it was charging and notably not exploding, so I'm counting that as a victory. Real load of small victories happening today...

I shrug, take another sip, and look out at the sunset. My sister might be getting to run around in the big leagues, but I'll be there too soon enough. I've just got to get my powers under control, keep practicing, and do enough regular level crime stopping that people trust me enough to actually let me onto one of their really big and regulated and /paid/ superhero teams.

The Mighty really need to work on their name, though. Like, seriously, it should at least have the word Justice in there somewhere...


	2. Lightningrod #1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> GREATNESS THREATENED BY HUBRIS! Ylisstol's newest superheroine attempts to stand up to the legacy of her father and sister, but is the shadowy Aversa too much of a threat for her burgeoning talents?

As far as deaths go, being left with my head phased halfway through the wall didn't seem like the funnest. I was also suddenly and violently aware of how stupid it was to challenge one of Dad's old enemies to a fight as my first real life-or-death superhero battles, and had spent the last minute desperately mashing my emergency 'call sis' button while I scrambled to put some distance between myself and my assailant. 

"You couldn't have just left me alone." Aversa growled. She took a few steps forwards, pausing to look at herself in the mirror - which just seemed to make her angrier, if anything. "And my hair is ruined!"

"Yeah, well. Static does that sometimes, and I'm a bit more than static." I groaned as I tried to sit up. My stomach still hurt from where she'd rammed her boot in a moment ago, and I was just glad she hadn't phased. Aversa tried to smooth down her hair, seething for a long moment before turning to face me with narrowed eyes. 

"I was going to let you off with a warning, you know."

"Lady, if you're going to kill me over ruining your look, I have some bad news about your outfit." I wheezed. That was something to regret, and I scrambled to my feet desperately when Aversa silently sank to the floor. Okay, that was way too easy, no way is she running away from me right now. She's just repositioning and trying to get me off guard, so where can I-

Something grabbed my ankle, and only the fact I was already building up electricity for an attack saved me. I heard Aversa shriek and curse on the floor below me as her hand pulled away, and I started making a desperate beeline for the windows. That was one charge down already — I couldn't guarantee another good hit like that for a while. I'd need to either build up my reserves again which takes time, or...huh, actually, you know what?

"Thank you, rich people and all your gadgets." I mutter, sliding across the floor and shoving my hand underneath the apartment's massive TV. I found the extension cable soon enough, and immediately started draining power. Did you know that I can actually sense electricity a little? Stepping into an average upper-class penthouse apartment with fifty game consoles and tablets and lights and thermostats and ice machines and whatever all buzzing and idling all the time made me feel like I had a headache a little bit, or like there was white noise but as a _feeling_ along my skull. Four out of ten, kinda useful when you need to recharge but do not recommend. 

"Now where are you?" I look around once my battery was full again, trying to stay off the floor. Aversa couldn't fly, but she could sort of 'swim' through solid surfaces if she could touch them - I remembered that much. I ended up having to hop onto the glass coffee table in the middle of the living room, which at least let me keep an eye on the floor to potentially see her coming. How did I even get into this mess?

Right, I was finishing my coffee and was right outside this apartment at the time. I didn't realize how much of being a superhero was pure luck, good or bad, until right now. Aversa must have been getting sloppy or overconfident, since I'd actually heard her force a window open. Which...wait.

If Aversa can walk through walls, why was she cracking a window open? Sure, she was a cat burglar for that one crime syndicate before she had gotten her powers, I knew that much. But even if she still had those talents and could disarm a security system she didn't need them, that was part of why she was such a massive problem...oh, no. She wasn't the only one here, was she?

"Crap." I mumbled, turning towards the open window. I'd crawled through it after her, and sure enough I could see two figures heading across the roof towards it, cutting off their parachutes and laughing with each other. So...base jumping off the skyscraper next to us, or from a plane? Probably base jumping. See, this is why I was mashing my Emergency Lucy button like mad, this was getting out of hand. 

"Yeah, that's a no." I mutter, holding out a hand. They at least seemed as surprised to see me as I was them, but by the time they'd grabbed their pistols out of their crash webbing the bolt of lightning had already sent them both sprawling. Hopefully they were just unconscious, but I couldn't waste time worrying about that right now, particularly since it meant I had taken my attention off the-

Aversa came through the damn ceiling and smashed both her knees into my face. Okay, maybe I should have seen something like that coming. The table shattered beneath us, but I didn't even get to feel my back hit the ground before that disturbing as hell feeling of getting dragged through wet mud covered me as the two of us phased through the floor. At least she didn't leave me inside the wall, but it did mean I was falling even damn further. 

Onto a bed, at least. See? Good luck and bad luck. Wheezing I sat up, trying to roll off of it, but the older woman just grabbed me by the neck and held me up, squeezing slightly. "I could bond my hand to your trachea and end your miserable life right now, do you understand?"

"'airs bout get worse." I managed to breathe, sending another jolt straight through her arm. She was sent sprawling onto the floor of this bedroom and I backed away, sucking in air greedily as my hand fumbled for the latch of the window behind me. Okay, I had to get out, I had to get out and see if Lucy had shown up and find out what the hell Aversa was doing letting a pair of mercs into a penthouse apartment in Ylisstol. Why would Aversa need backup if she was stealing something - hell, why would they base jump in? There's no way people wouldn't notice that. I'm missing something here. 

"This isn't a robbery." I managed to croak, finally. Aversa blinked as she stood up, her frustrated scowl growing a little sad now. 

"Well, damn. Now I really do have to kill you." She sighed in exasperation, stepping backwards and sinking into the wall. "Sorry, kid. You shouldn't have said that out loud."

Okay, and now whatever they were actually doing here was important enough to kill me over. No point going for the window behind me now, that's clearly locked - but the bedroom door was open. I bolted forwards, using my 'flight' to project myself forwards without touching the floor and just hoping I was faster than whatever it was Aversa was using to travel around. 

"Sorry! I'm really sorry!" I yelp. Not that there was any people there, but you don't know, maybe that cat was magic and could talk or something. I've met wizards before, shut up, it could happen. "Sorry, kitty!" 

No open windows, which wasn't good, but was the balcony door - the balcony door was unlocked. I pushed it open, slammed it shut behind myself, and leapt out into open air just before Aversa manifested right behind me. 

"Sorry!" I propelled myself across the street, landing heavily against the roof of the adjacent building. I looked up at the penthouse I'd just left, grimacing and launching myself back up there. I had to figure out what they were doing, or otherwise it was going to be-

_I really should have checked whose penthouse this was._

"Uh. Hi." I mumble after landing, staring in mute horror at the person staring at me. Ishtar **_Fucking Oh Naga I'm So Dead_ **Friege glared at me, although the intimidating effect was somewhat ruined by the fact she was in a bathrobe and her hair was swaddled in a towel. The two men I'd knocked out earlier were stumbling shakily to their feet, drawing weapons and glaring at me alongside her, while Aversa shimmered back into view alongside them. "So, what is this, some kind of secret meetup of local supervillains? Because, like, I know that you have amnesty on account of helping with that whole Manfroy thing a year back, but you've gotta admit this looks really bad."

"It does, doesn't it." Ishtar said in a flat voice, and I could already hear the wind starting to pick up. Maybe a little history lesson on why I'm so scared - up until a bit over a year ago, Ishtar was in the running to be called my sister and her friends' arch-nemesis. As in, like, all of them. All of The Mighty. But she'd helped out with some kind of nightmare situation with a rogue wizard trying to set up a bunch of child sacrifices, and allegedly she had called it quits on crime in exchange for not getting hunted down for all of the other ones. 

I could have sworn she'd moved back to, you know, Friege, but maybe that was a little high profile for her. The reason why she was capable of, you know, throwing down with six top tier superheroes at the same time was her power set. Complete weather control is kind of busted. "I guess I'm just going to have to make sure nobody finds out about this."

"Great. I'll shoot her and be done with it." One of the pistol mooks growled. I narrowed my eyes, trying to make out their face - and wincing when my eyes finally made out the sigil on his leather coat's sleeve. Adrestia's royal crest. Oh, this is...yeah, okay, so let's just look at this again. Someone from my dad's old rogues gallery and probably the highest-ranking field operative of an ancient criminal organization? Check. Representatives of an entire country ruled with an iron fist by what I can only call a megalomaniac pyromaniac bitch of an Emperor? Check. Someone who fought entire superhero teams to a standstill by herself? 

Where the hell is Lucina.

"Stand down." Ishtar said sharply, glaring at the gunman and then Aversa. "I'll deal with her. She disturbed my bath."

"I thought you were getting robbed!" I protested, taking a few steps back. I really should try and get inside, while I'm outside she could...what, hit me with lightning? Huh. /Huh/. Maybe this wasn't that one sided after all. 

"You should have left that to the insurance companies." Ishtar shot back. The skies were darkening and I could feel the wind picking up as she took off the towel from around her hair, her voice raising in volume to be heard over the sudden storm brewing. "Now do us all a favor and stand still."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nano count: 1,859 / 50,000


	3. Chapter Two: Lightningrod #2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CORNERED BY THE GODDESS! Having stumbled onto something even worse than she had expected, Cynthia finds help from an unexpected quarter!

Do you know how much electricity is in a bolt of lightning? Not, like, one of the ones I throw around - the ones that come from the sky. I'm honestly asking, this isn't a setup for a gotcha question or anything like that. I vaguely recall hearing something about a billion on some documentary while channel surfing, but I don't remember if it was joules or volts or amps or whatever. I'm just saying, when Ishtar hit me with a bolt from a clear sky, I thought I could just tank it or redirect it or something cool like that. 

Uh, turns out, nope. I mean, it didn't hurt - not really - but it was like all of my senses were turned up to about a thirteen out of ten. It was almost too much power, if that makes sense, or at least way more than I was used to dealing with. My enhanced reflexes were kicking in, but so was my information processing - suddenly I could feel every small electronic shift in the entire block. I'm pretty sure trying to deal with that information was why my nose started bleeding so heavily. 

"Badplan." I whimpered under my breath. I was curled up on the floor, twitching feebly as I tried to process everything - and luckily, it looked like Ishtar assumed I was dead or dying or at least indisposed. The skies started growing clearer again and I tried to focus, tried to overhear their conversation and make my suddenly enhanced senses do something useful other than make my head feel like it was splitting in two. 

"—be so stupid, Agent von Vestra. Could have just worn disguises and come up the damn elevator, your stunt would have drawn more attention than anything else."

"Oh, hardly. I can assure you hardly anyone would have looked up, and if they did, it would have just been some more hooligans engaging in self-endangering behavior. Considering that our faces are already on several wanted boards, staying off the street level is more important." The black-haired gunman snapped. I wracked my brain, trying to figure out where I'd heard that name and that Adrestian badge in combination before - but no, nothing. Damn it, I should probably read up some more on people like this as well as the ones with cool powers. "I don't think I'm the only one being stupid here, Lady Friege."

I could hear him shuffling and kneeling down, a low hum escaping him. "Your entertainment setup is fried. Our friend out there is an electrokine, they blasted myself and Ferdinand with enough volts to knock us out for almost two minutes. And you decided that the best course of action here was to hit her with more lightning, when going by the state of this I assume they can absorb it."

Uhoh. That probably wasn't good.

"They might be playing possum." von Vestra said simply as he stood up. I could hear him drawing his pistol, the slide clicking back and the safety snapping off as footsteps grew closer to the penthouse door. "It's what I would be doing-"

The blast I hurled towards the door collided with nothing, the Adrestian having dropped to his knees soundlessly immediately. Shots rang out and I felt something slam into my ribs and shoulder, the armor plating that Lucina's friends had put there the only thing that really kept me from anything more than bruises, but it still knocked me back. Oh, god, but even the pain was so much worse with that much power coursing through me - and I could hear more footsteps again, more heavy than the Adrestian's, and blinking my eyes open just showed me a scowling face framed by silver hair. 

Great.

"They don't seem to have been unaffected by it." Ishtar said simply. The skies darkened again a little, but they weren't stupid enough to call down more lightning - at least, it didn't look like it. The high winds were getting louder and louder, and I could have sworn that Ishtar herself was starting to levitate. "You like playing with lightning? Fine, then. A highly localized tornado should be harder for you to try and absorb."

...oh damn I don't think she's kidding. Aversa and the two Adrestians were stepping into the frame of my vision as well, along with a...floating...vase? Well, okay, that was a new one-

The vase shattered over Aversa's head, dropping her unconscious almost immediately. The two Adrestians whirled, the one with orange hair - Ferdinand, I guess? - suddenly having his head snap back, blood spurting from his nose. The other took a few steps backwards, growling as he raised his pistol and aimed at thin air. 

"Macneary again. I thought you learned from last time." He spun suddenly, a shot blowing a hole in the wall of Ishtar's penthouse. "You pop on infrared-"

Oh, so that's why his eyes were buzzing to my electro-sense. I should probably come up with a better name than that. I'm still burning with the power of that lightning bolt and lift one finger, whispering a careful word and pointing it straight at the side of his head. "Shouldn'ta talked at all, man."

Something sparked from his eyes and he howled, his spare hand moving to clutch at his face and claw at them. Shattered and still sparking contact lenses dropped to the ground, and he whirled to look at me - before letting out a long grunt, bending over at the waist as if something had hit him there. Ishtar herself looked mostly curious rather than anything else, tilting her head, and I realized suddenly that the wind hadn't actually stopped picking up. 

"Oshit-" I crawled to my feet, and Ishtar smiled thinly. 

"Get off my roof, please." 

Someone who hadn't been there a moment ago flickered into view, her fist an inch away from Ishtar's face before the blast of wind caught her clear in the stomach. People talk about love at first sight all the time, but really in this case it'd turn out to be more like third or fourth sight. Since the first time I couldn't actually, like, see her, and in the second we were both way too worried with not dying from the fall to think about that. The body of the formerly-invisible-woman smacked into me and we both went plummeting off the side of the building, winded and admittedly screaming a little-

Did I ever say that Lucina has excellent timing, except for how she doesn't really? We hadn't even fallen a single story before one of her portals caught us, dumping us in a beach somewhere and leaving us both sprawling in the sand, alone. 

"Where are we?" The woman on top of me groaned, staggering to her feet. She was wearing what had, clearly, been a very expensive and well-fit tuxedo up until she'd gotten thrown off a rooftop - although now it was a bit dishevelled it actually seemed to suit her better. Long purple hair was kept together in a ponytail, and oh my lord I think I'm in heaven. 

"Uh." I squint at the sign nearby, frowning as I took in the sheer number of tourists around us too. "...I don't know, but I think one of the Annas owns it."

"It's in Goldoa." My sister's voice wasn't exactly impressed, and I winced a little as I turned around to face her. "Cynthia, do you mind telling me exactly what you were doing getting in a fight with an innocent person?"

"Cynthia?" The mystery woman - well, Macneary, I guess - raised an eyebrow, and I flushed a little. 

"We're really not even trying a little with the secret identity thing, huh?" I ask Lucina. It doesn't change the look on her face. "Okay, look, I was just having my coffee in peace and quiet, alright, and then I heard someone breaking into the penthouse and turned around and hey look it's /Aversa/-"

"And you decided to fight her?" Lucina asked incredulously. "What happened to agreeing to take things slowly?"

"Okay, please don't get hung up on that bit, because the whole 'innocent person' thing is gonna need changed too-"

"-You could have been killed-"

"Ishtar Friege and Aversa are working with Emperor Edelgard von Hresvelg." The mystery woman interrupted. Her accent was thicker than I was expecting, but the actual vocabulary she was using seemed solid enough. I couldn't quite place it, either. Lucina glanced at her suspiciously, slowly raising an eyebrow. 

"And do you have any evidence of that?"

"Hubert von Vestra and Ferdinand von Aeiger. Two of her top agents. I was following them when they arrived in this city and they arrived at her penthouse by base jump. Aversa was opening the window for them. I followed, although it took longer." She glanced at me and raised an eyebrow. "You saved my life with that trick. Thank you."

"No problem. Going invisible is neat." I said weakly. Lucina pursed her lips, glaring at the two of us before opening up another portal, one that I could see lead straight back to our own house. 

"You are going home." Lucina snapped. I glared at her, ready to start an argument - but relented. A hand on my shoulder stopped me and I glanced at Mystery Woman again, raising an eyebrow and really hoping that my domino mask hid more of my cheeks than I thought it did.

"My name is Petra." Petra purred. Well, it certainly sounded like a purr to me. Oh, boy, I have never been simultaneously so happy and so angry at swinging for both teams than I am right at this very moment. "Yours?"

"I - uh - um - that is -" I gabbled for what felt like hours until I finally remembered the codename my sister and I had settled on. "Uh, it's Lightningrod. I mean Cynthia. I mean-"

Lucina's eyes were squeezed shut, but if it was from frustration or secondhand embarrassment it was hard to tell at this point. "Go home, Cynthia." 

"Right." I waved at Petra weakly, trying to make my smile look a little less stupid. "Uh, see you around, citizen?"

Did I actually just say that? I almost ran through the portal at that point, although my ears were still charged enough to pick up a small snippet of conversation as my sister started grilling the mysterious invisible woman for details. "von Vestra was in Ylisstol? What on earth was he doing..."

Yeah. Well. I could figure that out myself, too, if nobody else was going to say anything. I went to take my uniform off and found my fingers brushing against a card on my shoulder - a card with twelve numbers on it. 

"...okay. This is either a clue or, uh, you know what let's go with clue." I placed the card on my nightstand carefully. If it was Petra's number, it would probably be smarter to call it when she wasn't having a conversation with Lucina. I only got so far as stripping down to my underwear before I flopped onto my bed, groaning as the exhaustion and bruises all hit me at once. 

Maybe this life was overrated. I remembered the sheer satisfaction from getting the drop on Aversa, and how happy those people I'd helped before that were, and smiled a little weakly. 

Nah. It's pretty great. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nano count: 3,769 / 50,000
> 
> Character Inspiration: 
> 
> Hubert: Pretty much every 'his perfect match' Bond henchman ever, but most notably Necros and Red Grant.   
> Ferdinand: ...the less effective henchman in each Bond movie, like that guy who teams up with Jaws but gets thrown off a building by Roger Moore in like 5 minutes.  
> Petra: Every superhero with invisibility powers, but not so much in personality.  
> Ishtar: Ororo Monroe/Storm for powers, sticks pretty close to canon for her motivations and attitude.


	4. Armor of Contempt #6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ON THE HOME FRONT! Kjelle speaks with Lucina following the events of our newest series LIGHTNINGROD, and Laurent puts forth a harrowing theory! Is anywhere safe from this potentially arcane menace -- and what exactly is Adrestia's plan?

"So, how did the talk with that spy go?"

"She's not a spy, Kjelle." Lucina's voice was curt, like always. I just rolled my eyes and ducked under her next jab, slipping two paces away and repositioning. The gym on The Mighty's space station was completely empty except for us, which tended to be the way we liked it - isolation and practice. Besides, Brady was on speed dial in case one of us hurt the other too bad. Not that Lucina could ever land a good hit on me anymore. "Petra calls herself a freedom fighter, but she won't specify any further than that."

"So you just let her go? She was breaking and entering on public property."

"She saved my sister's life, apparently." Lucina went for a high kick this time, which was even more predictable than the last thing she'd tried. I blocked it easily, stepping inside her guard and smacking the palm of my hand against her chest. She accepted the hit with a brief nod, backing away from me and standing on the 'start' point of the ring again. "Besides, she's right. It is suspicious that Adrestian government officials are meeting up with a known thief and a former supervillain."

"Former my ass. I told you all she was just waiting until we dropped our guard." I snorted, rolling my neck. "Practice rounds over — powers?"

"No powers, Kjelle. I like my ribcage." Lucina popped her knuckles and settled into a lower stance than normal, legs spread wide. I didn't recognize it for a second, having to tilt my head before snorting. 

"Seriously? What, finally managing to get Morgan to teach you a few ninja tricks?"

"No. Asugi." She said tightly, and darted forwards. She wasn't any faster than normal, of course, but the style she was trying was annoying as hell when you remembered her arms and legs were so much longer than mine. We battered each other for what felt like two minutes, our fearless leader on the offensive as I stood still and took the hits on my forearms and shins, her fists and elbows and knees battering off the colored patches of 'safe' zones on my gym clothes. 

"Haven't heard of him." I catch an elbow strike on my right forearm, turning slightly and rotating - trying to bring my own crashing into the side of her head. She used the momentum of her own deflected strike to slide away from me, bare feet squeaking against the smooth wooden floor as she glared. 

"You wouldn't. He's just a student at Morgan's school, but he picked up some things from his parents. I let him practice on me sometimes."

"Fast learner." I grumble. The silent clock ticking in my head, counting down how long this individual spar was going before I rolled my eyes. Fine, I'd have to bring the fight to her, I guess. I took some slow steps forwards, letting a grin split my face as Lucina rapidly took just as many back. "You don't want me controlling the flow with this one, huh?"

"Oh, don't you start with the control freak nonsense. I'm going to get enough of that from Cynthia later." Lucina growled, darting forwards and bringing a palm strike shooting towards my face. It was easy enough to dodge, and the follow-up knee to my chest was blocked by crossing my arms. Which, by the way, let me grab her by the foot and yank her off her feet. Lucina cursed when she was dragged away, her other leg coming around and managing to kick my hands away as she balanced on her palms, but it was already way too late. She was sprawling on her back, and she was the one who'd said no powers. 

"That wasn't necessary." Lucina wheezed a moment later as we were both on the ground next to each other. I turned my head and raised an eyebrow, smirking a little. "Didn't we say something about showboating?"

"You said no powers. If you didn't want to lose to a standing elbow drop, don't end up on your back right next to me."

"I am so glad that you and my sister both grew out of watching wrestling." Lucina got up to her feet and rolled her neck, staring out the observation window at the planet below. "Still have to put up with Owain, though."

"Oh, please. Cynthia still watches, she's just shut up about it because she knows it bugs you." I snorted and moved to stand next to her, my arms crossed. "You're worried about little lightningrod, huh?"

"God, please don't start calling her that in public. She's been a hero for a day and already almost died." Lucina complained. "Her instincts were good, sure. But all the evidence supports Ishtar's claim of self defense no matter what she says. We can't do anything with the information she got, and now the group of them are going to be more on edge in case they think we're onto them."

"Does this Petra have any allies of her own?"

"She said there's a group of people working in and out of Adrestia that don't agree with the Emperor's expansionist policies. Which, again, we can't do anything about, so please don't start that old argument again." She shrugged, sighing. "She refused to drop names. I'm pretty sure that at least some of the old Leicester nobles are probably among them, though."

"Dimitri?" I hazarded. Lucina winced. 

"No, he's still...you know. Ever since Edelgard took his eye, he's been a little feral. I can't see anyone like Petra agreeing to work with him in this state." 

"That's still one of the most brutal things I've ever seen." I sigh, remembering that fight clearer than most. Way back before The Mighty got dragged down into jurisdictional regulations, and needing to file major actions with the UN, and a mountain of paperwork that we make poor Laurent work through - honestly, it's no wonder that Owain and Morgan both quit over the changes, space station or not. The newest Emperor of Adrestia deciding to actively invade Faerghus, and meeting its Prince and all of The Mighty on the battlefield. 

She'd crushed us. But I still remember Dimitri still standing up to her, his impenetrable skin letting him weather the bullets of her guard and the cuts of her own axe, up until she'd disarmed him and grabbed him by the head. 

Impenetrable skin doesn't stop her from boiling an eye in its socket. We had to back out after that, get him to a damn healer, but he'd broken out of the med ward and nearly killed the medics in the process. That entire debacle and our failed intervation had been why we were so tied up in international politics before we could do anything now. Strictly superhuman crimes...and dear Edelgard didn't count. 

"Yeah. Well. We can't touch her. Even if she is reaching out to local superpowered communities." Lucina said tightly, shaking her head. "I just hope we can find out why and stop it before it becomes a national-level situation. If we can cut the plan off locally, before Adrestia can announce any formal involvement, then..." 

"Then I don't get a chance to pound Edelgard's head into the ground." I grumble, flexing my hand. I hadn't gotten to use my powers outside of sparring for a while, and the ghostly armor shell that I manifested flickered over my fingers for a second like claws. "Look, Lucina. We've got people looking into it already, right?"

"Of course we do."

"Then go home and get some sleep. Talk to your sister, try and see if there's anything she's not telling you out of, I don't know, spite or childish pique." I shrug. "I'll keep Laurent company. If there's an emergency we'll call you, you know the drill."

"Maybe I should." Lucina admitted after a few moment's thought, sighing loudly. "Thanks, Kjelle. Do you want me to-"

"Leave before I decide to give you a spar with powers." I growl, and Lucina smirked before stepping through a dimensional door and vanishing. I hate that she can do that - the rest of us have to use teleporters like normal international-level superheroes. Although, admittedly, I was getting way more used to the teleporters than Lucina's weird way of moving around. I'm pretty sure she's gotten stuck somewhere she didn't like before, from how she talks about things in her sleep occasionally. 

I turn away from the window and head up to the watchroom, dozens of massive monitors blinking as the refitted asteroid that worked as our base/space station absorbed news from police radios all over the world and tried to narrow down what was happening into situations that would need our attention. It was so much easier when we had Owain around. 

"Long day?" Laurent asked me, looking up from the file he was filling out. I sat down opposite him and rubbed my forehead, groaning. 

"Not for me, but it sounds like Lucina's going to get a few years shaved off her life by Cynthia sooner than we thought."

"Her powers are quite impressive, you know. Most of the classical elemental manipulators prove to be forces on the battlefield when pushed." Laurent said distantly, closing the file and putting his pen away. "Of course, we don't need to speak any further about Edelgard. But you remember that run-in with the green-haired man we had originally misidentified as a mage?"

"Ced or something? Vapor, I think the locals called him?" I frowned. "Didn't we only see him for a few moments before he dissipated into nothing? I figured he had some kind of intangibility thing, like Aversa, but instead of phasing he got to disintegrate himself."

"Hardly. In fact, I'm fairly certain he can control and turn into pure air. Fascinating ability if true - but he seems more benign than Edelgard. Not as friendly as Cynthia would be, of course. But if he's the air elemental, than that still leaves us two short."

"Laurent, you're doing that thing where you assume I know what you're talking about again." I groan, and he at least had the good grace to apologize. 

"I'm sorry, Kjelle. It's somewhat simple - there's five powers that in ancient history were linked to the classical elements one way or another, to the point where they were often called Gods in some societies." He coughed. "Fire - so, Edelgard. Wind - so, this Ced or Vapor fellow. Lightning, so Cynthia. But we're missing Earth and Ice for the time being."

"I thought it was earth, fire, water and wind?" I hazarded. He waved a hand. 

"I did say linked to them, but that's only in historical document. The language used to talk about them changes from time to time. But it all agrees that they are immensely powerful, Kjelle, more so than almost anything else - at least in terms of physical impact. Psychic abilities are considered more dangerous by far."

"You're telling me that Cynthia can go toe to toe with Edelgard?" I asked incredulously. Laurent shrugged. 

"It's just a theory. We should test her powers more, see if there's any real water to it."

"Lucian's going to have a coronary." I grumbled. "So...you have no idea where the other two are?"

"Earth is always hard to detect, but we know its user is active, just not the location." Laurent blinked, before admitting something a little more worrying. "As for Ice, well...we believe that they may be active within Adrestia as well. We've heard a few reports of distant villages almost destroyed by ice storms, the child responsible chased away and called a monster, but that was almost a decade ago."

"Okay. Well. Best case scenario that kid grew up perfectly well balanced and just doesn't use their abilities anymore. Worst is, what? They've fallen in with Edelgard? I'm pretty sure we'd have heard if the Flame Emperor had anyone else as strong as her wandering around, surely." I try to laugh it off, but the look Laurent gave me was far From reassuring. "...Laurent, come on."

"Something's happening, Kjelle. People with powers are acting even more openly than normal." Laurent stood up abruptly. "I need to speak with Robin. I suspect some kind of arcane significance to the coming months that's drawing us all forwards subconsciously."

"Laurent. I'm sure there's nothing to worry about-"

Predictably, as soon as I said that, the intruder alarm blared - but only for the briefest second before cutting out entirely. So did the rest of the power, except for emergency life support. I froze, grabbing Laurent's hand and dragging him to the side. 

"Get somewhere safe. I'll try and figure out what's going on." To his credit, he always did back off to one of us when it came to field matters. Now I just had to hope that backup would show up even for a one-second blast of the intruder alarm. Anyone strong enough to attack The Mighty's watchtower would probably wipe the floor with any of us one on one, but together we'd beat them down like normal. 

And if it was just me? Hell, I'd give them a bloody nose at least, for sure.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Character inspirations -- Kjelle's power is a blatant rip off of the X-Men character Armor/Hisako Ichiki. Just put her on the long list of "X-Men Characters Marvel Doesn't Use Nearly Enough", which could probably contain enough characters to finish nanowrimo all by itself if we're honest.
> 
> Nano count: 6,018 / 50,000


	5. Crimson Flower #1

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A NEW PERSPECTIVE ON ONE OF THE WORLD'S MOST INFAMOUS VILLAINS! The Flame Emperor, Edelgard von Hresvelg, has long been known to readers as an enemy of The Mighty both in battle and on the political field - an expansionist waging a secret war against an ancient culture even more bloodthirsty than she. But how do her friends see her, and what drives the woman to such ends?
> 
> As a shocking attack is launched on Enbarr itself, Marianne and Constance find themselves forced to question Edelgard's own nature.

When you have been named a monster your entire life, it becomes easy to think of yourself as one - and easier still to spot one. I never grew claws or sprouted fangs, but my monstrosity was dangerous enough in its own way. The mountains around my home were cold enough before I began to express it, and perhaps that was why it took as all off guard. 

A harsh winter, my parents said as we went to bed one night. Harsher than normal. But they were not the ones to awake to their frozen corpses clutching each other for warmth desperately, huddled in bed just either side of me. They did not have to crawl out from between their parent's corpses and scream for help, shouting myself raw as I stumbled through scene of horror after horror. 

I was fourteen. Fourteen years old, and accused of causing this by the returning hunters, the only ones who hadn't been in the village the first time I lost control. Men with rifles and knives hunted me through the village, my brain trying its best to keep me alive while my soul secretly prayed they would find me. Oh, I wish they would have found me. When they cornered me under the remains of the church, I nearly let them finish it. It would have been simpler. 

But despite everything, a small part of me was still afraid of dying. So I had raised my hands and screamed at them, and watched with wide eyes as five more people died because of me. Blood may not have touched my hands, but their bodies had been dragged high into the sky atop massive icicles that had sprouted from the ground, hanging there in a grisly display that I can see every time I close my eyes.

It's easy to think of yourself as a monster when people call you one. It's easier when you know what you can do to anyone who calls you one, too. But it's easiest to spot another monster when you see one, which was why Edelgard had confused me so much. I should have hated her for what she's done, absorbing Faerghus and Leicester both - including the home of my adoptive father, the one person who tried to shield me from the wrath of any further retribution. I know what the rest of the world thought of her, but my own eyes could never see that. 

I could see the blood dripping from her hands, the fire burning in her eyes, the ashes in her wake. But I could also see why, and it was beautiful. I had never seen such conviction in ideals before, and for every atrocity I heard or even witnessed myself, I saw a smaller kindness being done at home. People are complicated, and monsters are simple. Edelgard is far more complicated than anyone else I know. 

She even accepted it when I asked her not to send me into battle, or even into fights against superpowered criminals. Even knowing how strong I was, how invaluable a tool I would have been...instead she just lets me stand aside. 

"Are you crushing on her again?" Dorothea brought me back to reality, prodding a finger against the back of my head. I snapped my head back around to the actress, a flush coming to my cheeks. 

"I was just thinking." I said after a few moments, turning my head back again. Edelgard was giving another speech from the balcony, but the words just brushed past my ears without being heard. It seemed more aggressive than normal, more bloodthirsty - more so than any I could remember her saying before, outside of the heat of the moment. "So, the rest of the Agarthians are finally dead, then?"

"Repeating it isn't going to make it any less true, Mari." Dorothea sighed, twitching in her seat. The group of us were considered Edelgard's ''personal advisors'', which was simply a political way of saying ''friends'', and had the privilge of watching these speeches from behind her inside the antechamber instead of out in the crowds. "I just hope it means all of this can stop, now. Bad enough that her reputation is in tatters."

"A rebuilding process can begin, now." A more chipper voice than I was really prepared for considering the current mood said, and Constance von Nuvelle flounced into the vacant seat on my right. "What have I missed?"

"You're over an hour late." Lysithea hissed, kicking up at the underneath of Constance's seat. The shorter girl couldn't see anymore, and I had to raise a hand to cover the slight smile the realization brought. "What kind of business takes so long?"

"Magic council business. Robin suspects that something is at play inside Fodlan, and was sharing information with me." Constance said shortly, which silenced Lysithea quickly enough. The two of them were both members of the secretive 'magic council', a group of the best magicians on the planet - an entirely apolitical body, with no official power, aiming at dealing with other magical threats from this world or outside the barriers of its dimension. Under her persona of Hexcite, Constance was one of the longest-serving and most decorated magicians save for Robin herself still serving.

She was twenty-two. It is not a position that people hold for particularly long, either retiring much as Hanneman or Athos eventually had, or dying at the hands of some malign entity or warlock — or far, far worse from what I have heard. 

"What is it?" Lysithea hissed. Dorothea shushed them both, but they were already underway in a very quiet, rushed conversation. I heard snippets of it, accusations of psychic manipulation and that the Agartheans had had links to some other, newly identified threat...but I could not make most of it out. Not over the growing sounds of screams coming from the courtyard. 

"Constance! Lysithea! Marianne!" Edelgard was barking orders now, turning from the crowd with more panic in her eyes than I could ever remember seeing. "Come quickly!"

I may not serve under her in an official capacity, but the panic in her voice worked better than any command she could have given. We all rushed to the balcony, staring up in horror as a red light burned through the sky - descending towards the panicking crowd. 

"Do something!" Edelgard ordered. Her voice was more firm now, her face smooth and in control again. Constance and Lysithea exchanged wide glances, the light growing brighter and brighter. Something was approaching, fast and massive and-

"We can slow it down." Lysithea said quickly. She was always faster on her feet than Constance with situations like this, and both women raised their hands - incatations muttered under their breaths as lilac and violet ribbons of light cascaded from their fingertips. True to their words, it failed to stop the descending meteor, but it at least was slowing it down. 

"Edie - Melt it, or something!" Constance's voice was panicked. Even I could tell that there was no escaping the incoming projectile, large enough to flatten the entire capital city if it landed. 

"And scatter burning rock and metal across everyone here? I'd kill hundreds of my own citizens." Edelgard said flatly, turning her gaze to me. "Marianne. Please."

She had never asked anything like this of me before, but this wasn't fighting, just saving lives. I could grant her that much. I had never even thought of interacting with ice on this scale, either, but...

A dome over the city would take too long. Instead I tried to focus, my eyes tracking the ribbons and the path of the meteor - making a funnel for it to fall into. Containing the fall, guiding it towards the true barrier I was constructing, a circle of ice almost a ten meters thick. It was beautiful, and it was terrifying, and as the meteor crashed into it the light of the flames made it look as though it was splattered with blood. 

But it held. Oh, how it held. The screams had faded, replaced with a kind of quiet awe and silent fear as they gazed at me - and no wonder. The entire balcony had been coated with frost from my concentration efforts, my hands were outstretched, and both Lysithea and Constance were openly gawping at me. It was one thing to know what somebody was capable of, but another entirely to witness it. 

"What was that?" Dorothea breathed as she joined us, staring at the frozen and suspended meteor in horror. Edelgard ground her teeth, her hands clenching the frosted balcony's railing and snapping the weakened metal in her armored grip. 

"It's the damned Mighty's asteroid base. They just tried to Thor Shot my capital city." She growled. I stared at her in alarm as she turned to leave, barking orders at the nearby military officers. "Caspar! Get me Ferdinand and Hubert, negotiations have clearly failed! I am going to make sure they burn for this atrocity."

"Why would they ruin their own station like this?" Lysithea wondered, staring at it. Constance pursed her lips, her eyes narrowing as she shielded herself from the sunlight as best she could, hissing an answer as it came to her. 

"We need to search it for survivors - or corpses. I don't think that was fired here under their power. I think someone was using this as an excuse."

I had a sudden, sinking feeling in my stomach. "Constance...what do you think Edelgard is going to do?"

"She's just been handed a fantastic excuse to launch another war, Marianne." Dorothea said sadly instead, staring over at our vanishing friend and trying to hide her accusing glare with her fan. "...she may have fabricated it herself, even. Or she would have come to the same thought that Constance had."

"Maybe." Constance said slowly. I liked the look in her eyes even less than Dorothea's own quiet accusations. "...unless she isn't in her right mind. This is such a blunt attack, nobody on The Mighty would ever even think of resorting to something like this. She should be able to see that. But..."

She broke into a quiet, harsh discussion with Lysithea, the Magic Council coming up more than once between them. I just stared up the stairs that Edelgard and her officers had climbed, wondering if I was about to be proven wrong about her or not. 

Maybe it wasn't as easy to spot a monster as I always told myself it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nano count: 7851
> 
> Marianne's powers brought to you by Bobby Drake, and every writer since the 1980s who realized that his powers are complete absolutely busted broken nonsense.


	6. Books of Magic #223

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THEFT FROM THE ARMORY! A prediction that the world's most powerful magician, Robin, has been mulling over for months rears its hideous head. An artifact she thought secured is stolen from her, and Lucina's vision of a broken world risks coming true for them all.

————  
Two Days before Crimson Flower #1  
————

Magic is far from a precise art, despite how many people describe it as a science - myself included. It is true that it follows specific rules, that it has its limits, and that a skilled practicioner could use it to do almost anything, but 'art' is a more important word there than 'precise'. Your own emotions will always seep into your magic, and in the best case it will merely color its effects and presentation, tying it into your own spirit and letting any learned mage identify who had cast even the most simple ward. 

Let your emotions run too wild, and the spell will unravel entirely, with potentially destructive effects. That is part of why I keep my personal life so seperated from my work here in the Sanctum, with the other mages - why my word is law, and why we only use our titles rather than our names. Robin may be a widow with a child that she adores, but Avatar is the most powerful magician in generations, who holds at bay monsters from outside our reality and casts down warlocks that believe they can harm others. Avatar teaches other mages how to use their powers and coaches them in responsibility, while Robin appears at her child's dojo and teases sweet Morgan in front of their students. 

"Hexcite. Hecate. Aether. Parralla." I greet the present mages as I step into the chamber. My feet leave the ground and I fly up to join them - the central meeting hall has no floor, or tables, or desk. It is simply a gigantic circular space, a floating orb of magical energy in the exact center, which keeps the entire pocket dimension that the Sanctum is placed in stabalized and intact. This room is perhaps more of an engine room than a central meeting hall, but every hallway in the slowly-expanding Sanctum will lead here eventually, so its use became natural. One of my predecessors, Athos, had created the Sanctum based off of notes left for him by the first Avatar, Gotoh. Apparently, the orb of energy collects stray magical power from reality itself, the cast-offs and exhaust of every spell a practicioner casts, and uses it to secure and expand the Sanctum itself. Every week, I find a new hallway. 

"Lady Avatar." Parralla is the most respectful, as normal. She may be something of a prissy, selfish bitch in person, but at least in magical duties she takes it all seriously. She prodded at Aether with a foot, and the black-haired mage tore himself from his books to scowl at me. 

"Why the sudden meeting?" He almost demanded. Parralla groaned, rubbing at her temples and visibly restraining herself from skewering him with a pointed comment. Or potentially some mean girls nonsense, knowing her. "You spoke to all of us a week ago. It is hardly time to speak again."

"Yet we are always grateful for your wisdom." Parralla smiled, and I resisted the urge to snap. I was just thinking about the differences between Robin and Avatar, and Parralla always treated Avatar with utmost respect. Even if Callil had mistaken Robin for a cleaning girl a dozen times at university and Robin had never quite gotten over it, particularly when the stuck-up blonde bitch decided-

"I was hoping for your own at this moment in time." I said instead, turning my attention over to the rest. Hexcite looked as if she was about to explode from the sheer glee before controlling herself, the Adrestian clearing her throat as she 'stood' in the empty air. Beside her, the younger of the two Adrestian mages had her own interest piqued almost equally. I decided that the best way to cut off the sudden, increasing sense of self-pride was to instead throw them as deep into the pit of despair as possible. "Someone has broken into my armory."

Aether actually choked at that. The others reacted in far less restrained ways, but watching Soren of all people turn ashen white with fear, even for a moment, and openly lose control almost made the entire situation worth it. "Oh, Gods. What did they take?"

"A dagger." I said darkly. Already my own magic was responding to the images in my mind, forming a glowing greenish-purple replica of the blade from smoke conjured from my fingers. "This dagger, to be precise. A bone hilt and a blade of copper. No discernable markings, although the hilt will feel alive to the touch, as if something is squirming inside it."

"Lovely." Hexcite squirmed in mid-air, forcing herself to calm with a visible effort. "And, ah, what does this dagger do, exactly?"

"It was the dagger used to murder the first superpowered individual in history." I said flatly. Aether had regained himself now at least, and was observing the dagger closely. "My predecessors and I have never discovered any other qualities it had - but we know for a fact it managed to kill an immortal. Nothing else we have ever found would even remotely be capable of that, as our own histories say regarding the second immortal."

"Medeus." Parralla mused. Her own fingers were quivering, but she seemed to have regained control of herself now. "Could it be someone that intends to kill him for good? We have yet to find wherever Marth and Gotoh imprisoned him following the most recent recorded confrontation."

"That was two hundred years ago. He could have escaped by now, it fits the pattern. He could be trying to remove the piece from the game board before making his move." Hecate mused. She tilted her head and stared at the dagger inquisitively, her brow furrowing. "But why not take anything else?"

"More concerningly." Aether interrupted her own line of thought. "How did they even get within the armory? It is coded to your own magical signature, Avatar. They would need to have replicated it perfectly in order to enter. I wonder how they could have managed that."

Blast it all, he knew. I didn't know how he had heard about it, but Soren was far smarter than almost anyone else here, even if my own magical abilities far outstripped his. Sometimes I considered anointing him as my replacement should I fall, but his attitude could be the doom of us all. "About a year ago, Lucina of The Mighty - ah, Princess Porta -"

"Honestly, nobles and their latin, it's adorable." Parralla couldn't help but chuckle under her breath. I did my best to ignore her. 

"-ended up stuck in a parrallel dimension thanks to her abilities. She escaped eventually, but spent about three months there by her own reckoning. It was a blasted hellscape of our own world, and it was ruled by...well, at first, she assumed it was me." I frowned at the sheer memory of it. "Someone had created a homonculus of me, perfect in almost every way. An exact identical copy in the magical and physical words, except warped and under their control. She says it was named Grima."

"A homunculus could break into your armory, if it knew how." Aether agreed slowly. "But again...why would they not take anything else from it?"

I was about to answer when I suddenly knew it myself. Because the homunculus could enter it whenever it wished. Because this Grima could be absolutely anywhere in this Sanctum, and I would have no way of knowing until it was far too late. What if the homunculus hadn't retrieved the dagger as part of a plan, but as a taunt? Removing something which, as far as any of us are aware, only had one very specific use, and let us know it existed? By the sudden realization on the others' faces, I was far from the only person to think this. 

"Effective immediately, I am sealing the Sanctum off from all outsiders." I said eventually. "Should a meeting be required, it shall be in the library above my own home. I trust you can all find it? Good."

Parralla couldn't. Well, she could ask for help if she could ever stoop that low. I barreled onwards, ignoring her attempt to protest. "Hexcite, meet me there in two days, I have something important to discuss with you. Everyone else...leave at once." 

They departed, their wards flashing once as they expelled themselves from the Sanctum. I reached out and touched the core, willing myself to feel every soul present inside - just one other. It felt like mine. I twisted my hand, sealing it shut - now nobody would be able to enter or leave the Sanctum, without my precise permission.

Not good enough. Grima would be able to overcome that, just as they had the wards surrounding my armory. I removed a small piece of the energy from deep inside the Sanctum's core, pocketing it - a physical key, essentially. Nobody would be able to alter the Sanctum until it was returned, including entering or exiting. 

"And where are you, then, demon?" I mutter, using the core to track the beast. I could sense myself now, walking down a hallway - approaching me confidently. I turned to the door as it opened, staring myself in the eyes. It was a strange and unsettling experience to be sure - and it grew worse as two more pairs of eyes opened along my cheeks, these a dark purple instead of my own brown, and my mouth opened to reveal row after impossible row of razor-sharp incisors. Gods, but the rows just continued down my throat. 

"Demon? Is that what you think I am?" The not-me rasped, approaching. Fleshy wings unfurled from her bare back, skin and muscle flaying themselves from along her spine to turn into two sets of wings that splayed out flat, dripping ichor and magical energies onto the floor. "Foolish little thing. I am far more than that."

"You are a homunculus. A weapon created by another, for some purpose that I will discover once I have ended you." I snapped. Grima tilted its head, that grin growing wider before it threw back its head and laughed. "Would it have been such a burden for you to clothe yourself when you took my form?"

"Oh, but this is so freeing." The homunculus leered, running a hand across its bare front - my own bare front. I was already glad I had sent the others away, knowing they would not be able to fight a foe like this on the same level, but considering the sight before me Robin was glad that they were gone too. "Can't you tell, little thing?"

"Cease this. You have no element of surprise here. Lucina's words were enough warning in the end." I snapped. Grima's laugh ended and their face grew serious, my mouth pressing into a tight, thin line on its face as they held up one finger. 

"Your pathetic princess has helped us more than she knows." Grima sneered. "My creator has had the dagger for six weeks now. You have grown sloppy even with that warning to look out for. Complacent. Focused too much on being Robin, rather than the Avatar."

"Then I shall show you what it means to be the Avatar." I growled. Greenish-purple energy escaped my hands, turning into great meat-hooks that embedded themselves in Grima's flesh. They yanked on it harshly, tearing away the mockery of my form that the homunculus was clad in, and the beast simply laughed as I destroyed its physical essence. 

"Challenging you at the heart of your power would be foolish." Grima rasped, before another meat-hook tore out its throat. It stood, still smiling and mouthing words as my spell tore it to shreds over the course of a long minute, at no point even attempting to defend itself. Why would it not?

I could not read lips. I could tell what it was taunting me with, in a fashion. This was not even remotely the entire Grima being, but just another flesh-puppet that they had created and sent here. A diversion. Yet another trap that we had all fallen for.

I stared at the viscious puddle of magical energy and destroyed flesh once I was satisifed with the destruction wrought on the fake honumculus' form, and frowned. So this was merely a puppet that Grima had created and sent...where was the real one, then?

Lucina had helped them more than she knows...who was us? Every question I asked myself led to another. Keeping the Sanctum's key pocketed, I stepped out into the real world, my blood-soaked boots leaving a foul impression on the fallen leaves of the Ylisstol park that I walked into. 

I would keep this makeshift key in my possession, and nobody else would be able to access the Sanctum, or my armory within. That would have to be enough of an advantage for now...and in the future, my problems would be far greater than I imagined. 

First things first, I had to visit my child again. Then, I would have two days to try and think of a way to tell Constance von Nuvelle that her dearest Emperor may have been being mind controlled for the better part of the last decade...news that would be hard to break to Lucina and the others, as well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nano Count: 10,118 / 50,000


	7. Armor of Contempt #7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> THE MIGHTY FALL! Faced with an intruder on board The Mighty's asteroid base, Kjelle finds herself with few allies and up against a force far greater than she could hope to confront. Is this the end for the Armored Athlete?

20 Minutes Before Crimson Flower #1  
~~

The alarm only went off for a second, and one simple, short note - but it had still gone off, and I was hoping that it'd bring some help running eventually if not immediately. Hell, knowing the personal lives of some of my coworkers, they'd just be grateful for the excuse to leave and come here instead. Of course, that was assuming there was anything wrong at all. 

When the rest of the power cut out as well, I realized I might be over my head a little. I felt my foot hit air instead of the metal deck of the hallway as the gravity failed, lifting me up into the air as I twisted desperately to try and get purchase. Thankfully, when Laurent had helped design the station, he had been something of a stickler for details, and the ceiling and walls were lined with metal handles that I could grab and use to propel myself forwards through the now-weightless space. 

"You find the saferoom?" I asked him in a clipped tone. I didn't have time for his usual rambling, and needed to get to the bottom of this. 

"Yes, I'm secure. Granted, the air in here should only last me about four hours, but it's sealed completely-"

I cut him off. Alright, so he couldn't help me from in there - we made sure that the saferooms were, well, safe. Concealed and with absolutely no electronics inside them, you'd have to be intimately familiar with the asteroid to find them. They weren't even on the schematics. Which gave me the freedom to focus on trying to find out who the hell was so determined to ruin the several billion dollar value asteroid - gravity and other life support systems wouldn't fail out of nowhere, especially not after the intruder alarm rang. 

Now, if I wanted to try and destroy the space station, where would I be? Immediately, I turned down a side hallway and threw myself towards the engine room. Assuming destruction was their plan - which, hopefully, it wasn't - it was about the only place I could think of to hit next. If they just wanted to kill everybody on board, well, they had already cut life support. They could have just left us there, but we could deal with that. If the engines blew, we'd have bigger problems. 

"What's happening?" A steady if confused voice crackled in my ear. So, somebody had managed to respond to the call even before the teleporters went offline. "Is anyone else active on the station?"

"Febail. It's Kjelle." I hurled myself down the last stretch of the hallway, my feet colliding solidly with the door to the engine room. I peered through the hatch, trying to tell if anyone was there - and spotting a shock of long red hair, dark robes collecting around his shoulders. Oh, now that was a familiar sight. "Julius is on board and he's messing with the engines. I'm engaging."

"Julius? Wait, Kjelle-"

I had kicked myself away again, lining up with the door from the wall opposite it. Summoning my armor around me I smirked, kicking off and rolling in mid-air as I brought both shining blue feet crashing through the metal bulkhead, spiralling into the room and aiming an elbow at the back of Julius' head. 

Still, gravity or no gravity, my entrance made a lot of noise. The teenaged mass murdering psychopath looked strangely calm as he dodged my strike, turning to me and pointing at the ground with a sneer. "Oh, sit down and be patient."

His words tugged at my ears strangely, but I just glanced at him and made a fist. "Yeah, no."

The sneer was replaced with a look of shock as I planted a shelf-sized fist into his chest, sending him crashing into the roof of the room and planting him there. I looked at the engines, trying to figure out if he'd done any damage, but so far it looked like he'd been trying to...supercharge them? I think, anyway. He was fiddling with the power supply before I came in, and I really needed to focus. I sidestepped his counterattack, the spikes of solid shadow that he could control slamming into the grating of the floor as I mocked him. 

"What, going to stay up there? Aw, are you afraid that I'm going to kick your ass harder than your sister did?" That didn't get anywhere near the kind of reaction I was expecting. Last I had heard of Julius, he'd actually been killed by Julia and his half-brother in some dramatic final duel on top of an ancient ziggurat somewhere. It wouldn't be the first time we'd all thought that someone was dead and they'd come back, though. Febail's voice crackled in my ear again, apparently finding his words at last. 

"Julius is dead! I saw the body, Kjelle, his damn heart had been pulped! Whatever that thing is, it's not-"

"Oh, good. Someone more pliable." The not-Julius muttered, turning his head slightly towards the door I'd kicked in. Febail was hovering there, his hand flying to his waist and pulling out a dagger that he hurled towards Julius with pinpoint precision. His eyes were glowing slightly, a telltale sign that his predictive aim power was kicking in, and the dagger should have smacked in between Julius' eyes point-first if he hadn't deflected it with a shadow. "You. Go and confirm the landing coordinates." 

I was about to call him out for being deranged enough to try and order around somebody trying to kill him, when Febail stiffened and pushed himself towards the engine's control panel. I blinked - mind control was not part of Julius' power set. Hell, I couldn't remember the last time I'd heard of someone that isn't a mage having it. You know, maybe we should have asked Cynthia to join the team straight away, she'd have probably rattled off the last three people to have the power and how they got beaten by now. 

"Okay. So that's a problem." I grumble, kicking towards Febail. He seemed to be fighting the mind control to some extent, as he didn't even attempt to stop my assault, although Julius' shadow-spikes forced me to stay away from him. Yeah, the odds right now weren't looking that great. "Julius, what the hell is your plan here?"

"Julius isn't here right now." A new voice cut in. Oh, good, so I was outnumbered now too. I turned around, raising my fists into a boxing stance as I glared at the newest man in the room - bald and goateed, a tattered purple jacket and brown pants. Honestly, he was one of the least intimidating people I'd ever seen, until I looked into his eyes. I was never very good at reading people, but a second of staring into those eyes was enough to make me wonder how something could radiate that much evil just by staring at you. "Loptous. You're taking far too long. Stop playing with your food and make her help Febail with the controls."

"Apologies. Her armor appears to be interfering with my abilities somehow." Not-Julius said in a detached, absent voice. The newcomer raised an eyebrow, looking at me with a bit more focus. 

"Really? Not an aspect of that power that I was aware of...although I suppose we learn new things every day." He reached into the pocket of his jacket and pulled out a dagger, a simple looking thing of bone and copper, but that somehow screamed with more malice to my senses than anything else I'd ever seen. Something about that dagger felt wrong to me, and my armor was almost screaming just being in the same room as it. "I'll have to acquire it properly, then."

The man lunged forwards, bringing the dagger down in a fast overhead arc. Normally I would block such an obvious attack with the armor itself, but the way it was screaming against my skin suggested that was probably a bad idea, so I stepped forwards and lifted my forearm. The man seemed to almost appreciate that I was fighting against him properly, each of his slashes being turned away by my armor or arms touching his forearm instead of the blade, but despite his thin frame each impact felt bruising. Not in any way that suggested he had powers, just a sort of wiry strength that you could only get for training and training for...god, who knew how long. 

"Pentak Silat? A little Muay Thai, too." He said, almost appreciating as he continued to try and cut me with the blade. I got the sudden, disturbing sensation that he was toying with me. "Interesting modern martial arts. Developed in the last thousand years or so. Of course, when you have been alive for almost a millenia, you pick up some arts that are considered extinct. Are you familiar with the Ewl Caer?"

Suddenly, though, he was inside my guard, and I found myself having to kick away into the air to avoid a sudden stab at my heart. He grinned as I barely avoided it, nodding his head slightly. "Ah, but not to stupid as to avoid improvisation when needed. I'm almost upset that I need to end this so quickly, but we are running low on time."

He took two long push-paces backwards through the open air, and stabbed the dagger into Febail's shoulder. The man gasped and bucked forwards, thrashing slightly as a yellow light seemed to pour from his body and into the dagger - and, in turn, into the old man. A moment later, he stared up at me and smiled, his eyes glowing slightly. 

"The fuck-?" I managed to say, before he suddenly hurled the dagger at me in an underhand throw. I tried to get my hands up to bat it away, but it slipped under them perfectly, and I felt a harsh, heavy impact as it pierced my armor and slammed into my chest. The man leaped forward an instant later, wrapping his hand around the knife's hilt as it started to glow. 

"Don't worry, Kjelle. Your sacrifice to my glory will be remembered." He almost purred. Impossibly, my armor faded from around my skin, and around him - instead of light blue like mine, it had a sickly purple shade to it, but it was my armor all the same. He'd stolen my power. The knife had stolen my damn power and given it to him, that wasn't meant to be possible-

"Is it set to go?" He asked, kicking me aside. I went sprawling against the observation port, choking and pressing a hand against the wound in my chest as he ignored me entirely. 

"Location set. We should leave before it hits." Not-Julius confirmed. "Should we kill them, Lord Medeus?"

"No. Let them watch their demise coming." He chuckled, as the two stepped into shadows and faded away with a flare of magic. "After all, Enbarr has no way of stopping this station from making impact. They will die with the city."

I didn't remember much of the next ten minutes, as we plummeted towards the world and I tried desperately to hang onto something and cushion the impact without my armor, while trying not to bleed out. But when that massive ice structure reached up to grasp us in mid-air and avoid a hard impact with the city surface, I couldn't help but let out a pained choking laugh. 

It's nice when the bad guys are overconfident. At least now I could try and tell someone about what had happened here, as long as the Adrestians didn't just kill us all first.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nano Count: 12,118 / 50,000


	8. Lightningrod #3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> ADRESTIA BURNS! After the shocking events of Crimson Flower #1, Cynthia reaches out to her mysterious new ally to try and get a better understanding of what is going on. She also comes to an uncomfortable realization about her own role in the world.

I woke up to the news blaring from the next room, and Lucina long gone. It actually took me a while to believe what I was seeing, but once it finally sank into my head I was already halfway to the door. Part of me wanted to call Lucina - hell, it desperately did - but I knew she wasn't on the station when it fell. She'd be busy trying to help people one way or another, either by collecting the rest of The Mighty or evacuating the city or...something. Well, except for the part where she wasn't allowed back into Adrestia or really any part of Fodlan anymore. 

Damn it, I hated being left out of the loop. I paused before leaving the apartment, turning slowly to the tv as a few facts sank into my head. Then I grabbed my sister's abandoned coffee, downed it, tried not to gag, and bolted for my bedroom instead. Petra's card had fallen off the bedside cabinet onto the floor when I flailed around waking up, but I still found it quickly enough, and hammered the number into my cell as quickly as I could. 

I should probably brush my teeth. I was halfway to the bathroom, still on autopilot, when she answered with a confused note in her voice. "Who is this?"

"It's Cyn-ah, Lightningrod. We met last night. Look, have you seen the news?" I ask as I stop myself. Brushing my teeth while on a phone call would be just about the worst social faux pas I could make right now, and there were a whole bunch of reasons I didn't want to screw things up with Petra. For one, she was useful, for another she was cool, and for a third I was desperately hoping that she was both into girls and single. Look, a gal can dream, okay? "'Cause it looks pretty bad."

"Mm. Did your sister tell you anything?" Petra asked me, suddenly much more focused. "My team is trying to figure out what exactly happened. It just came out of nowhere, and the person who stopped it-"

"Yeah. Ice powers, they haven't been seen in a while." I mumbled, trying to keep the innate urge to spill historical information out as secret as possible. "It's really impressive that they pulled that off, right? I mean, how much practice could they even have with them?"

"Lightningrod. Please." Petra said, her voice a little strained. "Did your sister tell you anything?"

"No. She was gone by the time I woke up. But you know what I realized?" I rushed forwards before Petra could say anything else. "I think that the stuff with the Adrestians and Ishtar from last night might be a false flag for this. I mean, like, someone might try and say that Ishtar was the one who pulled the asteroid down and hit the city, or at least hold that as a backup plan." 

"I'm sorry?" Petra said, disbelief in her voice. I decided to move forwards with my rambling anyway, letting out a light huff. 

"Look, it's - okay. The station wouldn't fall by accident, and if it did the odds of hitting Enbarr of all places is massively low. I think someone tried to make it hit Enbarr on purpose." I massaged one temple, trying to form my words. "And like, we can get reports out that Adrestia and a famous weather manipulating supervillain are teaming up? Well, everyone's going to think that Ishtar pulled the sattelite down to try and frame us for something. Either way, Adrestia suddenly has a perfect reason to try and go after us. But Ishtar can't do something like that."

"I was under the impression you didn't think she had reformed."

"I mean, I don't. But - look. Her powers are weather manipulation. How the hell was she meant to be pulling something out of orbit? There's no wind! Plus there was that time she was on the moon station for some big fancy fundraiser and didn't help the Mighty when it was attacked and she said it was because her powers were linked to Earth's atmosphere so-"

"I think there might have been a misunderstanding." Petra said, embarassment in her voice - but she was also muffled, like she wasn't talking to me anymore. "Ah, it appears Ishtar might have been telling the truth."

I heard an undignified shriek in the distance, and I blinked. "Are you interrogating her right now?"

"...maybe?" Petra said hesitantly. I frowned, resisting the urge to fry the phone in my hand. 

"You're not torturing her, are you?"

"No!" Petra's immediate revulsion cleared that much up at least. "I would never be doing the - look. Cynthia, can you get up to her penthouse again? I think we should be talking face to face for this."

"Oh. Right. You know my real name." I groaned, running a hand over my face. I tried to ignore Petra's giggle, grabbing my coat from the rack. "Let me shower and get into uniform. I'll be up as soon as I can - is it just Ishtar there?"

"No. The Adrestians from last night are here as well. Luckily, Ishtar had already restrained them before we arrived." We? Well, that was interesting. Hopefully it wasn't a sign that she wasn't single after all - okay, I'm fixating. Instead of continuing to fixate, I set the shower to cold, and decided to try and get ready as quickly as possible.  
——————  
Having tea with Ishtar Friege was an odd situation. Her hair was slightly mussed, but at least she was dressed this time instead of in a towel - a sheer black dress clinging to her figure far better than it had any right to. I'm not jealous, shut up. Besides, it's hard to be attracted to somebody who's glaring absolute daggers through you, no matter how objectively hot they are. 

Unless you're into that sort of thing. I let out a sigh, finishing my tea and glancing around the ruined penthouse living room to take the whole scene in again. The two Adrestian agents from last night were tied to the wall, the black-haired one looking more annoyed than anything else while the orange-hair was still unconscious. Petra had been accompanied by two men, one with tanned skin and dark hair while the other was pale with...I want to call it violet? It was interesting, for sure. 

"This is good." I said absently. Ishtar shrugged, not committing to much in the way of small talk.

"I took it from Agent von Aegir's pack after knocking him out. For all his faults, he has good taste." She said bitterly. The Adrestian who was awake turned his gaze to me, vision a little scathing. 

"Are you going to arrest her for admitting to theft? You're a superhero, that's what you do." He said dryly. I refused to rise to the bait, setting my tea down and rubbing at my temples again. 

"Okay, so, to recap. You - uh, Agent von Vestra, right?" I got no response, but kept my finger pointed at him. "And your crony came here last night to meet with Ishtar and Aversa because you'd heard of a potential terror attack that they were meant to be involved with. I stumbled on a clandestine meeting between the bunch of you because I stopped here for coffee, and you all panicked and responded with way too much force. When you heard the news this morning you, von Vestra, assumed the worst and tried to assassinate Ishtar while she had her breakfast."

"At which point I destroyed my own living room with a miniature tornado and restrained both of them." Ishtar grumbled. "Which is when the Invisible Woman over there sucker punched me. Apparently, she thought I had something to do with it as well."

"Our little trio is basically around entirely to try and keep Fodlan from outside Edelgard's entire control. We thought that Ishtar might have something to do with the attack, and that Edelgard might be trying to set the Mighty up to get more power on the international stage. Not many ways to get people to hate your enemies more than 'hey, look who just tried to wipe out half my capital city'." The pale-skinned man, Yuri, rolled his eyes. "It's what I would do."

"And that could very well be what you were all intended to think." von Vestra said dryly. "Clearly, however, we were mistaken. If the little superhero can be trusted in her assessment of Ishtar's abilities, then we have to assume she had nothing to do with it."

"Which raises a very interesting question." The other resistance member, Claude, mused as he stood up. "Everyone in here was involved or at least heard about that fracas last night...but where's Aversa?"

Ah, shit. 

"Something like this isn't her style. Dropping a space station? I mean, come on. She works for a crime syndicate and makes absolute boats of cash stealing and teaching other people to steal. Starting a war does nothing for her." I protested, weakly. But I could still remember back when she was significantly more violent than she was these days, and it was robbing my argument of most of its weight. "I guess they could have been hired to spread misinformation. Where did you hear about this threat in the first place?"

"Adrestian intelligence is highly classified." von Vestra said calmly. Ishtar raised an eyebrow and stared meaningfully outside the window. "...it was from a magician. We do not know her real name, but her callsign is Demone."

"You're joking." I said flatly. Hubert raised an eyebrow. "You got straight played. Demone's real name is Cassius. He works for the same crime syndicate as Aversa does, and he's been punched in the face by Kjelle on a monthly basis for the last two years."

"Ah." von Vestra's silence was suddenly a very, very intense anger rather than borderline sulking. "Well, that is another loose end we will need to trim. Whoever vetted him as an information source will need to pay."

"I need to call my sister." I sighed, shaking my head. "Guys, this is - we're grasping at straws, here. I think we stumbled onto their backup scapegoat, not their real plan. Like we were meant to blame Ishtar if it came to light that whatever the actual excuse they were planning was proven false. I need to call my sister and you really, really need to call your weird psycopath empress or a war's going to kick off."

"Agreed." von Vestra said flatly. Ishtar sighed, lifting a hand and letting the high-pressure air pockets that had been keeping his hands and feet pressed against the wall drop. He massaged his wrists before reaching into his pocket, pulling out his phone and stepping out onto the balcony with a scowl. 

"You said you've only been at this one day?" Claude asked me curiously as I fumbled with my phone. Calling her for something like this was striking me as monumentally stupid - if the call got intercepted somehow we could be screwed. "Pretty loopy thinking for a first day. I'm impressed." 

"Yeah. But my sister's been doing it for like five years and I've been studying and following it as, like, a hobby for the last ten." I blush, putting my phone away. Claude and Yuri exchanged glances before stepping out onto the balcony silently, clearly intending to eavesdrop on von Vestra's phone call. Petra just looked at me, impressed, with a raised eyebrow. 

"Do you want to get dinner later?" She asked suddenly. I almost dropped my phone. 

"Excuse me?" I squeaked. Petra stared me down, and I cleared my throat. "Uh, sure, yeah. Dinner sounds nice. I know a few places, unless you do, but I mean I guess this is my town so I'd know better than you-"

"It's fine. I'll call you later. It doesn't have to be a big thing." Petra smiled before vanishing from my sight, heading out onto the balcony. Ishtar stared at me, apparently slightly disgusted before sipping at her tea again. 

"Cold." She muttered, turning back to the kettle. I put my phone away, hoping that Lucina would at least take my request seriously and not just damn well leave me on Read or something, and paused to think about it. 

Wait. Petra saved my life, is part of a resistance movement, managed to subdue Ishtar somehow with the help of just two other guys who didn't strike me as that powerful. I was a bumbling rookie fangirl who just happened to know a bunch of things and gave what was, basically, an exposition dump.

"Oh, god." I whined, sinking my head into my hands. "Am I the love interest? Is that's what's happening here?"

"Join the club." Ishtar rolled her eyes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nano Count: 14,309 / 50,000


	9. Lightningrod #4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> CYNTHIA YLISSE is sitting on information that could mean a drastic difference to the events of Crimson Flower #1, but her sister continues to avoid talking to her. Between the stress of that building and a date looming over the horizon, how is she meant to go on?

*Two days after Lightningrod #4*

"Aren't you meant to be doing something more important?" I honestly couldn't remember the name of the guy I'd just kicked in the face, and even his complaining wasn't ringing any bells. I definitely recognized him, but he didn't have powers so I must have brushed it out of my mind. 

"Uh, like what? You were about to steal a car, dude. A pretty nice one too." I glanced back, guiltily, at the scorched chassis behind me. Well, it was still going to work. "...people in this city have insurance for what I end up doing to them, I'm sure."

"I dunno. Dropping another space station on a city or something." He shot back, and I felt my scowl get worse. I had hoped that finding someone doing something obviously bad and stopping them would improve my mood, but even they were starting to throw what was going on in Adrestia back in my face. The worst part was that after Hubert and Ferdinand disappeared - goddamn superspies - none of us knew how to get in contact with Edelgard directly without something going horribly wrong. I should be able to get in contact with The Mighty at least, but I've been texting and calling Lucina all day to no answer. 

Which is just, y'know, rude. As well as potentially damaging. At least I could look forward to tonight. "What, you an expert in super-politics now? I thought you were just some starter villain from back when my dad was starting out." Now that I was putting my nagging thoughts of recognition into words I furrowed my brow, staring at him before snapping my fingers. "Hey, Morristan, right?"

"Algol." The man growled. I shrugged. 

"I'm working off the fact you both fought my dad and have a really obviously thinning hairline to identify you, give me a break. Look, I know you're not powered and you're not much of a mage, just hand over your shock gauntlets and we'll call it a day, yeah?"

Algol snarled and dove at me. I considered dodging, I really did, but when I saw the crackling of electricity around his hands I just stood there and raised an eyebrow. His hands grabbed my around the elbows and he let out a victorious yell, sending lightning coursing into me and...more lightning, and...

He actually looked almost pitiful as he looked up at me, the power pack on his shoulders letting out a dying hum as it ran out of power. I let myself smirk a little, tilting my head before grabbing him by his own elbows and flipping him to the ground in what Morgan would shout at me for calling a judo throw. 

"Sorry. Bad matchup." I apologised. Algol scrambled back to his feet, hand flying for a knife at his belt before a loud crack filled the air and a stunned look crossed his face. He dropped to the ground unconcious, and the slight shimmer in the air I'd trained myself to notice faded away as Petra slid back into view. Damn it, she was in street clothes and they still looked like the fit her better than anything I had to wear except the really expensive tailored stuff. It should be illegal to make a tank top and jeans look that good.

"I was wondering where that had gone." I said idly. Petra glanced at the tire iron in her hand and shrugged, tossing it back down next to Algol and coughing slightly. 

"It was first thing I could grab. I should have left it - fingerprints."

"Nah, this dude's got a history here. Cops will know he did most of this." I said conversationally, pulling some zip-ties out of my pocket and binding his hands. I shorted out his shock gauntlets rather than trying to get them off and left him slumped and tied up against the car he'd attempted to rob, a post-it note on his head and a quick phone call sent to the civilian's arrest hotline. 

Hey. Superheroes made that a reasonable thing to exist. "Is such a strange custom." Petra mumbled to herself almost, glancing over at me with what was actually kinda approaching concern. "You are unharmed?"

"Guy tried to knock me out with like taser-gloves. I remembered what his gadget did once I placed his name, no biggie." I shrugged, stretching my arms. "I had him handled, by the way. Blast him right in the chest and leave him there, maybe without a concussion."

"Maybe." Petra shrugged. "I was hoping to see you. You have not been answering your phone."

"Yeah...sorry about that." I sighed, guiltily. It was one of the unfortunate side-effects of waiting to hear back from Lucina, trying to keep it open and free at all times. I explained that much to her, and it seemed to satisfy her as far as an answer could go. 

"Your sister has not been returning home either?"

"No. I haven't seen her since before the drop happened." I rubbed my eyes, growling to myself. I felt like I should be doing something, anything almost - but I didn't have any way of leaving this city under my own power in the first place, and if I couldn't reach them I couldn't reach them. Even the police contacts I had used said they couldn't get a hold of any of the Mighty right now, it was like physical options were...wait. "Actually, hang on. I think I might know someone. Lemme get changed into street clothes, it'll take a few seconds, just gotta turn my jacket around."

"Working date it is." Petra said as she turned her back, letting me flip my uniform jacket around, pull off my domino mask, and adjust everything so I looked like a normal person again. "I've always heard of those. Sounds fun."  
————  
Morgan had set up a dojo about two years back, I think. They had graduated from university before I could even start, which was just insulting, and had started teaching at one as soon as they could. Technically it was Robin's dojo, I suppose, but it was their name on the sign and they were the one who did all the teaching.

"Use They for them." I told Petra quickly as I knocked on the door. She seemed confused for a brief second, before catching on to my meaning and nodding firmly. "By the way, keep your eyes on them for as long as possible. They're a shapeshifter so it can be hard to keep track-"

The door opened before my third knock, and a short person with chin-length black hair blinked at me owlishly. They didn't look overly impressed. "Hard to keep track?"

"Morgan, come on. I find it hard to figure out which person in the dojo is you half the time and I've known you for years." I groaned. "So if you could please not freak out my friend by leaving the conversation and joining it as someone completely new I'd appreciate it."

Morgan glanced at Petra, looking her up and down for a second before looking back at me and raising an eyebrow. "Between Severa and this, I'm starting to think you just have a thing for long hair and muscles." 

"Oh my god, stop." I groaned, running a hand over my face as I walked into the dojo. Petra flushed a little, but gave Morgan an irritated look as she followed me in. "It's serious, Morgan. I mean, you've seen the news, right?"

"It's hard to miss." Morgan muttered. I turned around, found myself staring at a pale chest in a v-neck shirt instead of a head, and looked up a few more inches. "What?"

"What did I just say?" I asked in exasperation. Morgan chuckled, shaking their head before sitting down on a bean bag and gesturing at me with one hand. 

"Okay, okay. Yes, I've seen the news - like I said, it's hard to miss." Their face grew a little more serious. "I haven't heard back from my mother in a few days. Which isn't unusual, but considering what else has happened the last few days I figured they might be connected."

"Dammit." I cursed. My entire plan had been asking Morgan to talk to their mother and try to get a message through to Lucina through magic since tech clearly wasn't working - or even for her to abuse that whole 'avatar' status thing into making everyone shut up and listen to Petra's group. "Uh, how's your magic? Got astral projection and telepathy down yet?"

"I'm barely caught up with conjuring. It's a side hobby for me, you know that." Morgan frowned. Petra took pity on me and stepped in, filling Morgan in on what we'd learned and the theory I'd put forwards as I stared up at the dojo's blue ceiling and frowned deeply. 

"...yeah. I think your sister might be about to do something stupid." Morgan said after a while. I snapped myself back to focus, looking over at him with a raised eyebrow. "And if she doesn't, the Flame Emperor will. They already didn't like each other and this is a perfect excuse for one of the two to try and throw down with the other, restraining orders and international law be damned."

"Edelgard is more vicious in last few years than she used to be." Petra frowned. "She was...I believe term is 'hardass', yes. Imperialist certainly, very much of believing that combining world under one banner would fix problems. But back when I was at school with her, she would never think of resorting to something like she has with last few years."

"You went to school with Edelgard?" Morgan asked, surprised. Petra shrugged, the motion making a bunch of interesting things happen with her torn tank top and I am going to pay attention to the words instead of the sights again. "I thought that was some kind of private thing for the super-rich."

"It was. Myself, Edelgard, Claude, Dimitri - all attending same classes. Various children and nobles from Fodlan continent." She explained, her brow furrowing. "Something happen in last year. Professor vanish, magical explosion destroy wall of academy. Nobody see what happened to Principal, but some footage on internet of a dragon flying away. Edelgard vanish too for about three weeks, then she comes back, takes thrown, and invades rest of continent."

"Well that's not suspicious at all." Morgan said after a few moments. "But we can't afford to focus on that. Cynthia, you sure you can't get through to your sister?"

"You can try if you want. I've been getting left on read or sent to voicemail, and she won't respond to those either." I grumnbled. Morgan studied me for a few seconds, before saying something almost timidly. 

"Have you tried calling Severa? She's on the team too." 

I winced. Petra glanced over at me, almost amused. "Bad breakup?"

"Uh, yeah. Pretty bad." I said distantly. "It's probably a good thing it happened before I figured out I had powers, otherwise that car was going to be in a way worse state than it was."

"Cynthia ordered an ice sculpture for their two year anniversary dinner. Severa thought it was a dig at an old nickname between the two of them and kind of blew up in her face." Morgan filled in, amused. "At some point towards the tail end of the argument the statue was thrown at Severa's new car and shattered the steering wheel."

"Well she shouldn't have left the cover off!" I snapped, cheeks burning. It was a stupid argument and a stupid chain of events, but it sure had ruined that relationship harder than a lot of things. I glanced at my phone, groaned, and pulled up the contacts list. "Fine. But I'm doing this under protest."

"Noted." Morgan said, fighting to keep a straight face. I held the phone up to my ear and sighed, rubbing my forehead as the phone, thankfully, went to a real person. 

"Uh, hey, Severa. Listen-"

"Oh, good. You're safe." Severa seemed way less angry and immediately vindictive than she had been the last few times we'd talked, and that set off more than a dozen alarm bells at once, let me tell you. "Look, where are you?"

"Uh, Morgan's dojo. Why?"

"Right. Stay there, we'll be coming to debrief you soon." Severa's voice was a little harsher now, but it sounded like she was doing her absolute best to contain whatever anger she still felt for me. Which was actually more concerning than just yelling would be. "Kjelle and Laurent are captives of the Empire, nobody knows what happened to Febail, and the Emperor is screaming for blood. Also some lunatic in Adrestian special forces uniform stabbed your sister with a knife and now her powers don't work."

I almost dropped my phone. "They what?"

"Yeah. About the only reason we haven't all mobilized to go and give little miss Flame Bitch the blood she wants is because Lucina insists that the person who attacked her wasn't even remotely Fodlan...ite? Ugh, whatevs." I could hear her shaking her head. Still had the twintails, then. "Look. She's in a bad way. Didn't you hear?"

"I've been trying to call her for the last two days." I said, a mild note of horror in my voice. Lucina was meant to be damn well invincible in my eyes, after all. "Uh, Sev...look, I've sort of met up with some people. We stumbled on some evidence that the entire station drop could be some kind of triple-blind, but we're pretty sure Edelgard didn't have anything to do with it, or us either obviously-"

"Fun." Severa cut me off. "Stay there, write it out so that it makes sense, and I hope to god you've got real evidence and it's not just hearsay you've stumbled on. We'll be there in an hour."

Which is why, in about an hour's time, I found myself with arms outstretched trying to play peacekeeper in the middle of Morgan's dojo. On one side, the remnants of The Mighty - Severa, Brady, Larcei, Iuchar and Nah. On the other, Petra's little resistance trio, and the actual reason everyone on the 'good guy' side was so angry. 

Ishtar stared at the futuristic glowing gun that Severa had pointed in her face, fixing it with a glare that was so scathing I wondered how the damn thing hadn't powered down out of shame. "Well. This is certainly a fine start to our working relationship."

"I told you trying to throw them in at the deep end was a bad idea." Morgan said conversationally. I winced, and tried to figure out how the hell I was meant to explain this in a way that didn't end with a great big fight.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Nano Count: 16,835 / 50,000

**Author's Note:**

> Character Inspirations: 
> 
> Cynthia: A mix of Kate Bishop (backstory/socialite status), Kamala Khan (fangirling) & Kitty Pride (costume).  
> Lucina: Kate Bishop and every teleporting hero/villain ever created.  
> Aversa: Kitty Pride (Powers), Emma Frost (Attitude/Role)  
> Medeus: Apocalypse ('Ancient Evil', first of a kind, etc)  
> Edelgard: Doctor Doom (this should be pretty self evident, she's halfway there in canon already)
> 
> Nanowrimo Count: 0 / 50,000. Chapter was written early to see if I can actually commit any focus to this idea at all first.


End file.
